Valenzuela Nicole
Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Organismal Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA.
Cold Spring Harb Protoc. 2009 Jul;2009(7):pdb.emo124. doi: 10.1101/pdb.emo124.
Painted turtles (Chrysemys picta) are representatives of a vertebrate clade whose biology and phylogenetic position hold a key to our understanding of fundamental aspects of vertebrate evolution. These features make them an ideal emerging model system. Extensive ecological and physiological research provide the context in which to place new research advances in evolutionary genetics, genomics, evolutionary developmental biology, and ecological developmental biology which are enabled by current resources, such as a bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library of C. picta, and the imminent development of additional ones such as genome sequences and cDNA and expressed sequence tag (EST) libraries. This integrative approach will allow the research community to continue making advances to provide functional and evolutionary explanations for the lability of biological traits found not only among reptiles but vertebrates in general. Moreover, because humans and reptiles share a common ancestor, and given the ease of using nonplacental vertebrates in experimental biology compared with mammalian embryos, painted turtles are also an emerging model system for biomedical research. For example, painted turtles have been studied to understand many biological responses to overwintering and anoxia, as potential sentinels for environmental xenobiotics, and as a model to decipher the ecology and evolution of sexual development and reproduction. Thus, painted turtles are an excellent reptilian model system for studies with human health, environmental, ecological, and evolutionary significance.
锦龟（Chrysemys picta）是一个脊椎动物进化枝的代表，其生物学特性和系统发育位置是我们理解脊椎动物进化基本方面的关键。这些特性使其成为一个理想的新兴模型系统。广泛的生态和生理学研究为在进化遗传学、基因组学、进化发育生物学和生态发育生物学等领域取得新的研究进展提供了背景，而当前的资源，如锦龟的细菌人工染色体（BAC）文库，以及即将开发的其他资源，如基因组序列、cDNA和表达序列标签（EST）文库，都推动了这些进展。这种综合方法将使研究界能够继续取得进展，为不仅在爬行动物中，而且在整个脊椎动物中发现的生物性状的不稳定性提供功能和进化方面的解释。此外，由于人类和爬行动物有共同的祖先，而且与哺乳动物胚胎相比，在实验生物学中使用非胎盘脊椎动物更加容易，锦龟也是生物医学研究的一个新兴模型系统。例如，人们对锦龟进行了研究，以了解其对越冬和缺氧的许多生物学反应，将其作为环境异生物素的潜在哨兵，以及作为解读性发育和繁殖的生态学和进化的模型。因此，锦龟是用于具有人类健康、环境、生态和进化意义研究的优秀爬行动物模型系统。
